The Napa County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday debated a resolution to ensure legal and ethical use of artificial intelligence by county employees and contractors.
If approved, the resolution would prohibit county employees from using Napa County employee IDs to log in to publicly available AI applications, inputting sensitive employee or customer information to AI services, or using unapproved AI services on county devices or networks.
It would also mandate that county employees and contractors review all AI-generated outputs to ensure they are accurate and relevant, align with county values, policies and ethical standards, and comply with copyright laws. County employees or contractors who violate the policy may be subject to termination and civil and criminal penalties, according to the resolution.
After discussion, the board ultimately asked county staff to revise the policy and bring it back at a future meeting for approval.
Meg Ragan, Napa County’s digital innovation officer, and Greg Bown, the county’s interim chief security information officer, presented the policy to the board.
“AI will not replace the human element. But, when used responsibly, it can enhance the services that we deliver to our community,” Ragan said. “This policy represents more than a set of rules: it’s a starting point.”
Bown urged the board to pass the policy promptly so that the County Executive Office can begin addressing a backlog of applications to use AI services and software, including tools for project management, calendar scheduling, and report writing.
“The policy, as it exists right now, at least gives us a framework from which we can work and approve or deny some of the requests that we currently have,” he said.
Wanting a closer look
Supervisor Belia Ramos argued that the board should examine the policy more closely before passing it.
“I don’t see that the absence of a policy at this moment necessarily precludes us from doing the right thing and moving forward and procuring applications as deemed necessary,” she said. “We’ve been doing that since the beginning of Napa County — for 175 years — without an AI policy.”
Ramos pointed out that the County’s Information Technology Use and Security Policy has not been revised since April 17, 2001.
“The policy, as it exists right now, at least gives us a framework from which we can work and approve or deny some of the requests that we currently have.” Greg Bown, Napa County interim chief security information officer
“I think that we need to look at our Information Technology Use and Security Policy (and) also have a data policy with an AI policy, and they all need to come together. Because a 2001 policy? I mean Chromebooks didn’t even exist back then,” she said. “I think that there’s an opportunity for us to, not pause, but actually go deeper.”
The County Executive Office has drafted a new Information Technology Use and Security Policy that is ready to move through the process of approval, according to Bown.
Supervisor Amber Manfree argued that the county should maintain strong human oversight to promote quality of work.
“The human element and the review element just seems like it’s always a necessary component of the quality control.” she said. “There’s something to human intellect that I think is going to be hard to bottle. Forever.”